Formation of Solar Filaments by Steady and Nonsteady Chromospheric Heating

TL;DR

This study uses advanced simulations to explore how solar filaments form through steady and transient chromospheric heating, revealing the conditions for thermal instability and filament growth in magnetic loops.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis showing the onset of filament formation satisfies linear instability criteria and demonstrates filament growth can continue without ongoing heating.

Findings

Thermal instability onset occurs roughly 2 hours after localized heating.

Condensation growth rates range from 800 km/hr to 4000 km/hr.

Filaments can form, coalesce, and persist even after heating ceases.

Abstract

It has been established that cold plasma condensations can form in a magnetic loop subject to localized heating of the footpoints. In this paper, we use grid-adaptive numerical simulations of the radiative hydrodynamic equations to parametrically investigate the filament formation process in a pre-shaped loop with both steady and finite-time chromospheric heating. Compared to previous works, we consider low-lying loops with shallow dips, and use a more realistic description for the radiative losses. We demonstrate for the first time that the onset of thermal instability satisfies the linear instability criterion. The onset time of the condensation is roughly \sim 2 hr or more after the localized heating at the footpoint is effective, and the growth rate of the thread length varies from 800 km hr-1 to 4000 km hr-1, depending on the amplitude and the decay length scale characterizing this localized chromospheric heating. We show how single or multiple condensation segments may form in the coronal portion. In the asymmetric heating case, when two segments form, they approach and coalesce, and the coalesced condensation later drains down into the chromosphere. With a steady heating, this process repeats with a periodicity of several hours. While our parametric survey confirms and augments earlier findings, we also point out that steady heating is not necessary to sustain the condensation. Once the condensation is formed, it can keep growing also when the localized heating ceases. Finally, we show that the condensation can survive continuous buffeting by perturbations resulting from the photospheric p-mode waves.